The member who had asked the question said that he didn’t quite see why the figures should be there. Why shouldn’t they be at the town end of the bridge, facing the town?
Frampton said that at the town end, the swerve of the road made the bridge-end a bad place for statues.
“Yes,” the member persisted, “but so’s the other place a bad place, it seems to me.”
“Not at all,” Frampton said. “It is a fair field of view. You will see the figures all the straight two hundred yards leading to the bridge-end from the country. When you come to them there’s a fair space by the road, where you can leave your car while you examine them. They will add to the appearance of the bridge. At the town end, anyone looking at the statue’ll get run over.”
“Still, the people of the town would see them,” the man objected, “and in the middle of Hen’s Marsh they wouldn’t. People don’t go out the Hen’s Marsh side.”
“No, they come in from there,” Frampton said.
“Then you don’t want the town’s people to see them, only the country people?”
“I want everybody to see them who wants to see them,” he answered. “I believe that a good many people will go out to see them. And I know that they’ll improve the look of the bridge.”
“We in Stubbington are very proud of our bridge,” Mr. Fist said. “It was a bridge site in Roman times.”
A member who had not spoken now asked if he might be permitted to ask, in order to avoid any misunderstanding, exactly why Mr. Mansell was wishing to put up the statues. No one had done such a thing before, and the question was bound to be asked sooner or later, in the Press and that. Mr. Fist said that if it wasn’t a rude question, he, too, would like to know. Perhaps Mr. Mansold would not mind telling them.
“I’ll tell you, certainly,” Frampton said. “I own these two bronze figures, which I admire enormously. I think that they ought to be public property and would be very noble figures for such a site as your bridge-end. I would like to give them to Stubbington, for that site, if you will accept them for it. It is a site unequalled in England. I believe that with them the bridge-end will be a thing unmatched in England. Then for other motives, I have come to live not far from here. I do some of my shopping here. You might call this my market town. I have given here, as yet, no gift to any public body, save as subscription or donation. I would like to give something more important and more personal out of my love for art. I believe that if I give Stubbington two bronzes by Faringdon, the future inhabitants of the place will think of me without dislike.”
“Well, Mr. Mansold,” Mr. Fist said, “you have made us an offer, whether of statues or of bronzes, and which is which I’m not sure, and as the Chairman, it falls to me to say we’re very much obliged, I’m sure, and we shall be very pleased to discuss the matter and let you know. If you may think we’re not very welcoming, it’s because we haven’t had much experience of statues, or bronze statues, or bronzes. We’ve only got two things in Stubbington, which we pride ourselves on: good hearts and common sense.”
“A first-rate foundation,” Frampton said. “You can get most things with those.”
“I don’t know about most things,” Mr. Fist said, “but some we can.”
Frampton had taken this as his dismissal, and was going, when a member said:
“I wonder if, before he goes, Mr. Mansell will tell us one thing? In fixing statues you have to do quite a bit of masonry sometimes, fixing them in and tidying up round after. May I ask if Mr. Mansell means us to do that—provided, of course, that his scheme goes through?”
Frampton said that he meant the statues to be a gift, and that the gift would include the putting them in position and tidying up afterwards. The passage to the bridge would not be interfered with. Traffic would be able to pass, even when the bronzes were being put into position. But he wished it to be clear, that the citizens or townspeople of Stubbington would not have to pay a penny for the making or fixing of the bronzes. After the bronzes were there, they would be town property, and as much liabilities to the town as the rest of the bridge at the end of which they would stand. He made this, as he thought, clear to them, and then left. He felt that he had been accused of trying to poison Stubbington in its sleep, and was now suspected of having set the town on fire. He had tried to make them a handsome gift. They had made it clear that they were up to his devilry, thank you, and weren’t going to let him get away with it.
Just before he left, he placed on the table his photographs of the two figures, and the sketches of them in position, so that they might consider and discuss them after he had gone.
When he left the Council, he went over to see the warden in Spirr. He had been very bitter towards Tim since the Christmas frolic; but had been thinking that he was responsible for the frolic, and for Tim’s feeling lonely.